The Kavli Prize is not the only support the Kavli Foundation gives to science, but it is an apt indicator of its big-thinking style. Founded in 2000 by wealthy businessman and physicist Fred Kavli, the foundation's chief aim is to support good research in the basic sciences. Since then, the foundation has steadily increased its influence, giving mostly to boost faculty resources at institutions like the founder's hometown University of California-Santa Barbara or to create centers of research like the Kavli Institute for Brain Science at Columbia University.